Pawn Dillinger: Great tournament to see players who may be the future of chess, including three 19 year olds: Jan-Krzysztof, of Poland, who for the first time just broke into the 2700 club; Vladislav Artemiev, of Russia, who with one round remaining is 3.5 points away from 2700; and Matthias Bluebaum, of Germany, who is poised to crack the Top 100.
All three will likely compete in the World Cup.

Twenty-two-year-old Vladimir Fedoseev, of Russia, is currently 2712 with a round to go. And 21-year-old Daniil Dubov, of Russia, is also moving his way toward 2700.

Twenty-one-year-old Richard Rapport , of Hungary, did not compete in this tournament, but has already been over 2700. And of course, China's Wei Yii, 18, is busy in the Chinese League.

Add the potential of these players with the usual suspects and the future of chess looks bright.

On a sidenote, since I'm American, a quick look at the up-and-comers players from the U.S., who hope to someday join transplanted Filipino Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura:, 25-year-old Sam Shankland, who is nearing the 2700 mark, and exciting Jeffery Xiong, who has ousted fellow 16-year-old Samuel Sevian for top honors in the juniors. Twenty-two-year-old Ray Robson is in the top 100, but seems to have hit the wall for now.

You probably looked before the results were fully updated - it's up to either Kuzubov (27) or Lenic (28), as there are 5 in the top places who already qualified last year (Jobava, Cheparinov, Navara, Dubov, Zhigalko). I'm not completely sure because they said 22 qualifying spots, but last year as well as pretty much the whole last decade it's been 23, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's a mistake.

sonia91: <I'm not completely sure because they said 22 qualifying spots, but last year as well as pretty much the whole last decade it's been 23, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's a mistake.> The regulations clearly say 22, so not a mistake. I'm not sure, but maybe it's because the 23rd European spot is now reserved to the winner of the European Small Nations Individual Championship (i.e. Helgi Dam Ziska from Faroe Islands). The first winner of this latter event was among the 5 FIDE nominees in the 2015 World Cup.

Nf8: <sonia91> Maybe, though I noticed that last time they "smuggled" another winner of a European zonal as a FIDE wildcard as well - Kovalenko, who won a special Baltic zonal (which takes place this cycle as well).

fisayo123: Congratulations to Matlakov, the new European Champion. Amazing achievement in such an outrageously competitive field.

Congrats to Fedoseev as well for the bronze medal. The Russian Chess Federation needs to start paying serious attention to both these players. With virtually no top tournament invites, both have found themselves with ratings of <2723.6>
and <2717.7> respectively. The likes of Kramnik and Svidler won't be around forever. These young players are the present and future and if the Russians had any sense, they need to give them every opportunity and means required to improve.

Congratulations to Jan-Krzysztof Duda as well for breaking the 2700 barrier after only turning 19 a couple of months ago. He's a huge talent.

sonia91: <fisayo123: The Russian Chess Federation needs to start paying serious attention to both these players.> "The Russian Chess Federation is glad that Maxim Matlakov, a young and promising chess player, became the European Champion. We hope to see him progressing hereafter. Now we consider Matlakov as a potential member of the Russian national team. We are also happy for Vladimir Fedoseev. The Petersburg chess school is showing its best, and we conrgatulate them on it".

Nf8: <sonia91: <I'm not completely sure because they said 22 qualifying spots, but last year as well as pretty much the whole last decade it's been 23, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's a mistake.> The regulations clearly say 22, so not a mistake. I'm not sure, but maybe it's because the 23rd European spot is now reserved to the winner of the European Small Nations Individual Championship (i.e. Helgi Dam Ziska from Faroe Islands). The first winner of this latter event was among the 5 FIDE nominees in the 2015 World Cup.>

<Nf8: <sonia91> Maybe, though I noticed that last time they "smuggled" another winner of a European zonal as a FIDE wildcard as well - Kovalenko, who won a special Baltic zonal (which takes place this cycle as well).>

With the FIDE list of qualifiers now published (though still not completely full) the mystery is solved - the 46th place is reserved for the winner of yet another special zonal - the Nordic (https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-t...).
The winners of the two other special European zonals (small nations & Baltic) will probably be smuggled again, as in 2015, via the category of FIDE wildcards.

AylerKupp: <latvalatvian> I'm glad to see that you are playing chess. What have your results been? Have you bothered to analyze your losses with some evil chess engine to see where you went wrong? If you do, I suspect that your results will improve.

Unless, of course, you have won every game you played. If you have, then I look forward to seeing you participate in the 2020 Candidates Tournament to see if you can qualify as the WCC challenger in 2020.

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